HII just purchased the new Raw Developer from www.iridientdigital.com. They have a ICC profile for ZD raw files now. This program will process a large varity of other raw files. In comparison to the Mamiya software its better. I will be processing more files tommorrow. It is sharper and seems to be a cleaner file. Since we use the Aptus 22 a lot it is closer to that quality. But I will have to do further tests.

How about the processing times Denis? Faster than Mamiya Photo Studio?

In my test Adobe Camera Raw still gets more detail than the others but the color and exposure have to be tweaked soo much just to arrive to the same point that DPS and SilkyPix gets from the beginning. Silkypix have a very nice tone output, it is a good compromise between detail/color tone.

How about the processing times Denis? Faster than Mamiya Photo Studio?

In my test Adobe Camera Raw still gets more detail than the others but the color and exposure have to be tweaked soo much just to arrive to the same point that DPS and SilkyPix gets from the beginning. Silkypix have a very nice tone output, it is a good compromise between detail/color tone.

HiI have just processed ZD files with the lastest RAW 1.5.2 and the quality is the best I have seen from this camera. I will have to do a comparision in the future with the Aptus 22. Last night with a friend we also processed ZD files with photoshop CSII camera raw. They wre very good but RAW processor still has the edge. Both processors were far better than DPS. With using RAW Processor it's like buying a new camera!!! Plus RAW will work with the new Intel Mac computers. I still have to create some extra ZD profiles with this program, the defalt one is a little flat for my taste.

I'd like to work out an optimised workflow for the ZD for Lightroom. That seems to offer the best long-term solutiion but (i) the Windows version, Beta 3, seems to have a memory leak. Even after closing it down my PC runs like a parrot through treacle, and (ii) Silkypix gives very good results quickly and effectively.

Photo studio is too kludgy except for tethered capture.

Being Pc based, Raw Developer is not available. as an option for me.

« Last Edit: August 10, 2006, 10:30:40 AM by Quentin »

Logged

Quentin Bargate, ARPS, Author, photographer entrepreneur and senior partner of Bargate Murray, Law Firm of the Year 2013

Denis you make me want to return to work with a Mac, but I will still wait until the next generation of Powermacs, which won't be soon I think. Meanwhie I will try Iridient product with some friends' computers and compare. There is a very straight relation between detail and artifacts. Mamiya DPS seems to have the least artifacts and detail. Photoshop and Silkypix both manage to get more detail but you have to tweak the programs to remove artifacts too. Puff... too many programs, I also would like to have a single program workflow, and Lightroom seemed fine (I tried on a mac for some weeks). On the other hand I also find myself shooting tethered 90% of the time, even with fashion shots, so if only Mamiya would be better...anyway...I suppose we cannot ask so much for being the first version.

Denis you make me want to return to work with a Mac, but I will still wait until the next generation of Powermacs, which won't be soon I think. Meanwhie I will try Iridient product with some friends' computers and compare.

HiWe use both the Aptus 22 and the ZD depends on the job. However in the last few days since we have purchased Raw the results blow DPS away. I just came up with a more saturated version based on the ZD default setting. We did a portrait of a cricket player for a magazine down here and the results are stunning!!!! Compared to DPS they are sharper, clearer and have more detail. For AD jobs I will not have any heastitations of using both the Aptus 22 and ZD if I have to shoot different parts to create an ad. We already did this for Telstra down here. I think it is great that RAW now supports the new Mac intell processors.There support is excellent you will get a reponse within hours to a day!!! Next I will try in on my Canon 5D. By the way I timed a ZD MEF through Raw and it is about 8 seconds. With DPS it is 35 seconds on the same computer. With Aptus 22 through Leasf processor it is 1:30 min. Just download a Demo and give it a go. Frustrating with Mac as they are going through a lot of changes plus they are expensive. At least the ZD (DPS) supports both MAC & PC.Thanks Denis

There support is excellent you will get a reponse within hours to a day!!! Next I will try in on my Canon 5D. By the way I timed a ZD MEF through Raw and it is about 8 seconds. With DPS it is 35 seconds on the same computer. With Aptus 22 through Leasf processor it is 1:30 min.

Hello,

if you have tried out RAW developer with your 5D files, as you say, I would be very interested in your findings. I have the 5d but am a bit underwhelmed with its color, it somehow seems unpleasing/ not very natural in my eyes, RAW developer has a very good reputation for both detail and a "film look": Also if you have the time, I'd be very interested to see a 1:1 comparision of a RAW-Devel. file against ACR; C1 or such.

Unfortunately so far I am also on a PC, I have had the idea of getting a small Mac Mini duo Intel to run certain apps that dont exist on PC; but I am afraid the "Mac Mini Intel" will just be too slow. I played around with it in a Mac store, and the speed seemed abysmal to me. Photoshop took more than a minute to start, and a 70MB file took another minute to load. Impossible to handle...

if you have tried out RAW developer with your 5D files, as you say, I would be very interested in your findings. I have the 5d but am a bit underwhelmed with its color, it somehow seems unpleasing/ not very natural in my eyes, RAW developer has a very good reputation for both detail and a "film look": Also if you have the time, I'd be very interested to see a 1:1 comparision of a RAW-Devel. file against ACR; C1 or such.

HiToday I started processing 5D files and it took about 5 SEC!!! I did a direct comparison with the Canon software and I found the RAW had less red & contrast. However this was at iso 3200 but I have to say RAW processor is easier to use and the B&W controls are amazing! I will have to test it further but I did buy this program for the ZD. Next I will try it on Aptus 22 files.Thanks Denis

I tried RAW Developer the other day in a eMac. I have to recognize that it must be the fastest one around. As for the detail, it's on par with ACR, and like ACR it makes the over sharpen "pattern" over the image when you push it too much, I suppose that's why they put this "smooth amount" in the sharpen dialog. As for the color, I didn't find it "film-like", on the contrary my images looked more real-color than with MamiyaDPS, but maybe it's because I tried only two photos and cannot make a good judgement. Anyway it would be good if they make a PC version which doesn't look probable.